The Nature and Origin of Language
Author: Denis Bouchard Series: Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language
Denis Bouchard looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language evolved. He argues that language is a system of signs and considers how these elements first came together in the brain. His account of language origins offers insights into language and to constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis.
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Summary
Denis Bouchard looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language evolved. He argues that language is a system of signs and considers how these elements first came together in the brain. His account of language origins offers insights into language and to constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis.
Description
This book looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language then evolved. Its four parts are concerned with different views on the emergence of language, with what language is, how it evolved in the human brain, and finally how this process led to the properties of language. Part I considers the main approaches to the subject and how far language evolved culturally or genetically. Part II argues that language is a system of signs andconsiders how these elements first came together in the brain. Part III examines the evidence for brain mechanisms to allow the formation of signs. Part IV shows how the book's explanation of languageorigins and evolution is not only consistent with the complex properties of languages but provides the basis for a theory of syntax that offers insights into the learnability of language and to the nature of constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis, including including subject-verb inversion in questions, existential constructions, and long-distance dependencies. Denis Bouchard's outstandingly original account will interest linguists of all persuasions as wellas cognitive scientists and others interested in the evolution of language.
Critic Reviews
“"This is a highly interesting, well-researched and well-written book. I would recommend it to researchers and students interested in the study of language evolution." --The Linguist List”
This is a highly interesting, well-researched and well-written book. I would recommend it to researchers and students interested in the study of language evolution. The Linguist List
About the Author
Denis Bouchard is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Quebec in Montreal. His publications include The Semantics of Syntax (University of Chicago Press, 1995), On the Content of Empty Categories (Foris Publications, 1984), and Adjectives, Number and Interfaces (Elsevier Science, 2002).
This book looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language then evolved. Its four parts are concerned with different views on the emergence of language, with what language is, how it evolved in the human brain, and finally how this process led to the properties of language. Part I considers the main approaches to the subject and how far language evolved culturally or genetically. Part II argues that language is a system of signs and considers how these elements first came together in the brain. Part III examines the evidence for brain mechanisms to allow the formation of signs. Part IV shows how the book's explanation of language origins and evolution is not only consistent with the complex properties of languages but provides the basis for a theory of syntax that offers insights into the learnability of language and to the nature of constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis, including including subject-verb inversion in questions, existential constructions, and long-distance dependencies. Denis Bouchard's outstandingly original account will interest linguists of all persuasions as well as cognitive scientists and others interested in the evolution of language.
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